The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced new guidelines on June 1, 2015, for restroom access for transgender workers. The guidelines, which are not official standards or regulations, set out OSHA’s best practices for employers with transgender employees. These best practices include having written policies to ensure that all employees—regardless of gender—have prompt access to appropriate sanitary facilities that correspond with the employee’s gender identity.
A recent Presidential memorandum and a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision are likely to make a big difference in whether employers have to pay overtime to some managerial, administrative, or professional employees.
To assist employers in complying with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor has issued some model forms for use in the medical certification process. Using these forms is a great way for an employer to ensure compliance with the FMLA. These forms have recently been updated because of some changes to the FMLA. The new forms are available here:
Employee wellness programs may be caught between the rock of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and hard place of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as amended by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continued its proactive stance towards transgender employees in a ruling released early last month. In its April 1, 2015, decision, the EEOC determined that a transgender civilian employee at Redstone Arsenal had experienced discrimination when she was restricted from using a common women’s restroom. This case highlights the EEOC’s aggressive policy of eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.